Tag Archives: Anbar Province

Featured, Foreign Policy, International

ISIS Kills 18 Iraqi Soldiers in Attack on Key Anbar Base

Leave a comment

by Jason Ditz

A group of 10 ISIS fighters, at least two of them suicide bombers, attacked the main Anbar Province air base of Ayn al-Assad over the weekend, killing at least 18 Iraqi soldiers and wounding an unknown number of others.

Ayn al-Assad has several hundred US troops, labeled “trainers,” though the Iraqi Defense Ministry insisted that the ISIS fighters, who did briefly seize some buildings on the base, didn’t actually reach any US facilities.

According to Iraqi officials, eight of the 10 attackers were killed by Iraqi troops defending the base, while the other two blew themselves up. It is unclear how they got inside the base, let alone seized several important offices on such a major base.

Despite claims that ISIS is “on the run” in Anbar Province after the fall of Ramadi, the group has continued to launch major attacks in both Anbar and Baghdad.

International, Politics

ISIS Executes 46 Surrendered Tribal Fighters in Iraq

1 Comment

Largest Execution Yet in Anbar Province

by Jason Ditz, October 29, 2014
Reports from the eastern Anbar Province town of Hit say that ISIS has carried out a mass public execution of 46 tribal fighters from the Albu Nimr Tribe, which were fighting alongside Iraqi government forces.
Albu Nimr tribe is a Sunni group influential in the former Sunni Awakening movement, and is one of the few tribes that remains on the side of the Iraqi government.

The tribal fighters had reportedly surrendered in a rout by ISIS fighters, and the killings were carried out all the same. The public show of force was seen as an effort to intimidate other tribal factions that may be inclined to rebel.

This is the first major public execution ISIS has carried out in Anbar Province, where it has mostly been welcomed by tribal factions as a safer alternative to Shi’ite militias.

Executions are a risky tactic with the tribals, as while they may indeed intimidate some in the near-term, ISIS is heavily dependent on tribal acquiescence in the long run for ruling their “caliphate.”